Mayor gives back $14,000 to city for travel that included political work.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday said he reimbursed the city for more than $14,000 in travel expenses “to make it right” after a Tribune story that found he spent taxpayer money on trips during which he tapped well-heeled donors for campaign contributions.

“Over the last three years, we had a series of trips and we’ve done the things we’ve needed to do to make it right,” Emanuel said when asked how he came to spend public funds on campaign fundraising.

The Tribune reported Wednesday that the money Emanuel paid back covered expenses tied to seven trips during which City Hall determined he conducted political work on the city's dime — plus a $1,800-per-night hotel room he booked for four nights during President Barack Obama's second inauguration in January 2013. Emanuel’s banker cut two checks from his personal account totaling $14,623.78.

But Emanuel's repayment did not include costs associated with at least three taxpayer-funded trips during which the mayor met with current and future campaign donors, and six trips for which records show he conducted little or no city business, the Tribune found.

The reimbursements came as Emanuel put in place a new travel policy for the mayor's office to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used for "campaign-related business." The new guidelines, however, do not spell out what Emanuel considers campaign business. That gives him latitude to determine what travel costs he pays for and which ones taxpayers pick up, without having to disclose what he did on the trips.

Emanuel briefly talked about the new travel policy Wednesday. “We made a policy. It’s fully transparent. We’ve gone beyond the law and paid back what we owed to the taxpayers,” he said.

In April, the Tribune reported that Emanuel took at least 56 trips during his first 2 1/2 years in office, with City Hall spending $325,000 on travel for Emanuel and his staff. The Emanuel administration later disclosed that the city spent an additional $30,000 on private car service for the trips.

On more than half those trips, Emanuel did not disclose his travel to the public, city records showed. The Tribune pieced together details of the mayor's travel from thousands of pages of campaign finance reports, official calendars, public schedules and city expense records obtained through open records requests.

During at least 15 of his out-of-town trips, Emanuel held campaign fundraisers and meetings with political donors or engaged in events that included little or no city business, the Tribune found.

After the story was published, the administration developed a travel policy for the mayor's office. It states that on trips in which city business is mixed with campaign work, "costs shall be allocated according to the percentage of the trip spent on each type of business."

For the reimbursements, the mayor's staff reviewed his schedule to calculate how much time the mayor spent on political business to determine how much should be paid back, plus 5 percent interest compounded monthly, Quinn said.

On July 9, Emanuel issued two checks to the city. The first, for $8,811, covered the mayor's four-night stay at the Washington Park Hyatt during Obama's January 2013 inauguration, plus interest. The Emanuel administration said in April that the mayor would pay back the city for those costs.

The second check, for $5,812.78, included payments for seven trips in which the administration concluded the city had paid for "campaign-related business."

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